Crowdfund campaign to install solar lights in Soweto

Johannesburg - In collaboration with the Philile Foundation, Greenpeace
Africa’s recently launched campaign Project Sunshine seeks to raise
R100 000 from mid-June to mid-July to install solar streetlights around a
crèche in Diepsloot.

Project Sunshine is a crowdfunded initiative and at
midpoint the project has already raised over R30 000. With just two weeks
left to meet the target, Greenpeace is calling on all South Africans to play a
role in bringing light to underprivileged, off-grid communities by visiting and
supporting the crowdfunding.

Greenpeace Africa is offering South Africans the opportunity
to participate in assisting electricity poor communities. The current grid
simply bypasses an estimated 10% of South Africans, and for those who are connected
to the grid, being able to afford electricity becomes a new challenge.

Greenpeace Africa Climate and Energy Campaigner Nhlanhla
Sibisi said: “It feels like South
Africa is a country at war with itself at
the moment, with poverty, crises and scandals around every corner. Most of us
can relate to walking down a dark street at night and feeling unsafe. Solar
streetlights can contribute towards safer streets and the fight against crime”.

Despite the widespread crime and service delivery protests
in South Africa,
City Power has actively blocked this project for years. Local authorities in Johannesburg have also
acted as a barrier to using solar energy for the electrification of off-grid
communities.

In 2015, Greenpeace Africa had aimed to complete this project
on a much larger scale, but after years of trying to get permission from
numerous City Power authorities, the project was finally downscaled.

“As far as Greenpeace Africa is concerned, this seems to
simply indicate that City Power is threatened by a project that aims to deliver
street lighting when they have no plans to electrify parts of Diepsloot for
years to come” said Melita Steele, Senior Climate and Energy Campaign Manager
for Greenpeace Africa.

“Our current electricity system is dysfunctional, and
innovative solutions like solar streetlights should be the way of the future.
This is a solution that could and should be replicated by municipalities across
the country,” said Steele.